Central Stores is here to help with spring cleaning

"Working with administration, departments with selected university owned e-waste and surplus should email Sean Kimpinski at csss@uwaterloo.ca," says a note from Central Stores. "Sean will add your request to the pickup list. In the email please list the items being picked up and the locations, so that a pickup date and time can be scheduled."

This one month initiative will allow departments the opportunity to clear out e-waste “for disposal” and other items “for surplus/disposal” without the normal paperwork requirements. Any items deemed to be of high value, will be separated and a request for an “Asset Disposal Form” will be issued.

As always, faculty, staff and students are invited to drop off personal e-waste items at Central Stores, 263 Phillip Street at any time throughout the year from Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Optimization techniques guide surgeons at SickKids

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A section of an infant’s skull cut, cut and reshaped into a natural curve.

Waterloo graduate student David Qian, under the guidance of the Faculty of Mathematics’ Ricardo Fukasawa and Jochen Koenemann, introduced optimization techniques based on integer and dynamic programming to surgeons at SickKids hospital. By applying mathematical optimization algorithms, Qian and team advised doctors on the best surgical cut points to minimize the volume-difference between the surgically modified skull, and an ideal skull.

Surgeons currently rely on their intuition and experience to repair skull deformities, found at birth, in over 100 infants each year. This surgery requires doctors to remove a section of an infant’s skull, called the bandeau, reshape it into a natural curve and secure it back into the child’s head. There are a limited number of doctors willing to perform this surgery and without it these children may experience further complications to their eyesight and mental development as their skull hardens.

“Prior to our involvement, surgeons were required to eye ball much of their efforts,” said Fukasawa, a faculty member in the Department of Combinatorics & Optimization. “For us, this appeared to be an ideal practical project from an optimization perspective. We used a paradigm known as dynamic programming to design fast methods to assist us in finding a volume minimizing collection of cut points.”

“Using CT scans of patients’ skulls and the bandeau templates, we developed a model to determine where the frontal bone should be cut in order to attain an ideal curvature post-surgery,” said Qian, a Waterloo graduate, with degrees in Combinatorics & Optimization.

The Waterloo team worked hand-and-hand with doctors in September 2014 for the first surgery mapped by optimization. On the walls of the surgical room were pages of algorithm output that determined the exact cut points for the bandeau of an infant’s skull. The surgical team first removed the infant's bandeau, and then installed artificial hinges in the cut locations recommended by the Waterloo team's algorithms.

“It was a very nerve-wracking experience, but the doctors at SickKids were so amazing,” said Koenemann, also a faculty member in the Department of Combinatorics & Optimization. “They were so open to work with us and there was very little red tape, so we could get access to the information we needed to run our algorithms.”

“It was a real collaboration between teams with two very different sets of expertise,” said Fukasawa. “It was so rewarding to directly impact someone’s life, especially the life of such a small child.”

#JerseysforHumboldt and other notes

On Thursday, April 12, the University of Waterloo community came together to join a cross-Canada initiative to show solidarity and support to the athletes, staff and families of the Humboldt Broncos, who lost 16 members of their organization in a crash in rural Saskatchewan on Friday, April 6. Here are a few photos submitted by our campus colleagues:

The Registrar's Office will be donating the money raised from their weekly dress-down Friday collection to the GoFundMe campaign that was set up in the wake of the tragedy to assist the victims and their families.

Members of the Faculty of Arts in the Hagey Hub.

Members of Counselling Services.

Members of the Faculty of Science.

Members of WatPD in East Campus 1.

Friends and colleagues of Biology professor Ralph Smith are inviting members of the campus community to attend his retirement celebration after 31 years as a faculty member at the University. The event will be held on Tuesday, May 29 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the University Club. Light refreshments will be served. RSVP to Margaret Burton by sending an email to mberton@uwaterloo.ca.

On Wednesday, April 4, Amit and Meena Chakma Awards for Exceptional Teaching by a Student(AETS) committee chair Jeff Casello hosted a recognition luncheon at the University Club for the 2018 AETS recipients and committee members.